Letecia Stauch, 39, is accused of killing her stepson Gannon Stauch, 11. (Inset photo of the Gannon is a file photo; Courtroom photo from Law&Crime Network)
Jurors convicted Letecia Stauch, 39, of murder and tampering charges for killing her stepson Gannon Stauch, 11. Her defense argued that she was insane at the time, suffering a psychotic break that resulted in her acting out of anger against the child.
The prosecution maintained that she knew what she was doing before, during, and after the slaying.
Prosecutors said she carried out the act while her then-husband Al Stauch was out of town for National Guard work, and their other children were out. When Gannon’s younger sister Laina Stauch arrived home on the bus on the afternoon of Jan. 27, 2020, the defendant made her wait outside.
“She makes Laina stay outside because she’s got work to do,” prosecutor Dave Young told jurors in closing arguments on Friday. That work was cleaning up the crime scene and hiding the evidence. It was at 6:55 p.m. that she called 911, reporting him missing.
Footage showed her the next day at 6:22 a.m. driving off her Volkswagen Tiguan for 10 minutes. Young suggested Stauch was doing a practice run to see if anyone would see her moving Gannon’s body from the home. She decided to rent another car, he said.
“Is that evidence of psychosis?” he said. “Or is that evidence of thinking things through?”
Eventually, she drove the suitcase from Colorado to Pensacola, Florida. She was arrested in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, during the search for Gannon. Bridge workers in Pensacola discovered the suitcase containing the child’s remains on March 17, 2020.
The defense said that Letecia Stauch lived with dissociative identity disorder. Jurors saw interview footage in which she spoke to medical experts about her purported condition.
Dr. Jackie Grimmett, who analyzed her for competency to face charges, said Stauch told her about having personalities named Taylor, Tecia, Jasmine “and, I believe, Jasper.” But Grimmett said that was inconsistent with dissociative identity disorder.
The defendant selected names based on things she liked and aspirations she said.
“The alters present themselves to you,” Grimmett said, describing a typical case. “You don’t create them, and you don’t name them kind of whimsically.”
The condition is crippling, she said, with people being unable to hold down jobs and relationships. Grimmett suggested that by discussing the different personalities and also claiming to talk to vampires, Stauch was trying to feel better about being in her situation — being charged in Gannon’s death.
Dr. Dorothy Lewis, an expert for the defense, testified that Stauch may not remember killing Gannon.
Famous serial killer psychiatrist Dr. #DorothyLewis suggested accused murderer #LeteciaStauch may not remember killing her stepson Gannon in 2020. “I’ve said that from the beginning,” Stauch said to Lewis during an interview. pic.twitter.com/X2Gqd6XWv4
— Law&Crime Network (@LawCrimeNetwork) May 3, 2023
Renowned psychiatrist Dr. #DorothyLewis testified that accused child killer #LeteciaStauch was psychotic at the time of #GannonStauch‘s murder. “She was not in touch with reality,” Dr. Lewis said. pic.twitter.com/lDNRBZl0is
— Law&Crime Network (@LawCrimeNetwork) May 2, 2023
In video shown to jurors, Stauch, speaking under the persona of self-styled protector “Maria Sanchez,” admitted killing Gannon when speaking to Lewis.
Grimmett testified that the defendant never told her about this persona.
Dr. Loandra Torres, a state expert who analyzed the defendant for insanity, testified that Stauch was sane and able to form some intent.
In video played for the court, Stauch told Torres about shooting Gannon but thinking that a man in a black cape broke into their home. She suggested she mistook the child because of the way a cover was wrapped around him.
“Never in a million years,” she said, insisting she would never purposefully hurt her stepson.
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